Wish I got a three-week vacation…..

Julian has deserted me, choosing to go visit relatives in Texas rather than stay here and work for Photographic Art. Imagine if he had gone to work for, say, Target and, after just a couple of months on the job, said, “I’m going to take a three-week vacation”………….. Good thing I’m flexible. 🙂

Since he’s gone, though, I don’t have to figure out how to keep him busy; the State of Texas is doing that for him. Thus I have finished cataloging and processing all the big tree pictures from Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park from when I went to the Spring fundraiser on May 3 for Cat House on the Kings.

Following are Photographic Art from my final batch of pictures. They won’t be available at our Fine Art America galleries until Julian gets back from Texas.

View of the valley from Generals Highway, the loop road that goes through the two national parks:

Part of the Giant Forest, named by John Muir after his first visit to the area:

The only Visitor Center that we came across. Generals Highway pretty much is a DIY drive.

The following picture shows three stages of life for the big trees, dying (with the green lichens on it), dead (left tree), and really dead (right tree).

There were plenty of benches lining the walkways through the Giant Forest. Jim and I made use of several of them.

Following is the General Sherman tree, often called the largest living organism on planet Earth.

For true tree fans like me with my degree in Forest Management from Texas A&M University, that has to be qualified. It is not the tallest, it is not the widest, and it is not the oldest. However, at 275 feet tall, a trunk diameter of 25 feet, an estimated volume of 52,513 cubic feet, and an estimated age of at least 2,300 years, it is among the tallest, widest and oldest of all trees on the planet. Here’s a picture of the base of the trunk of the General Sherman tree:

Following is the walkway that took us to the General Sherman tree, a walk among giants.

On the way out of Sequoia National Park, driving south, there are some spectacular views, such as the following of Deer Ridge and Moro Rock:

Lastly, a few pictures that I thought made fine, fine, fine Photographic Art:

Been Burned

Fissures

It’s A Wash

Down For The Count

Returning From Whence It Came

As the big tree forest merged with the drier forests at lower elevations, cactus started creeping into the mix, such as yuccas which were blooming. I had to do a U-turn to go back and get these three pictures: